Peter Crowther of PS Publishing has commissioned a linked quartet of novellas by Eric Brown through Brown's agent, John Jarrold. The first of the four books, which - following the success of Brown's Starship quartet - PS will be publishing as limited editions only, will appear next summer.

Each volume of the Colony Quartet will be set on a different colony world in Earth's Expansion – the same universe as Eric's Starship novellas. They will feature Matt Hendrick, an ex-colonial administrator. The story arc will show him regaining his humanity through his various experiences. One story will be a murder mystery set on an exotic alien world, another a mystery involving a bizarre race of native life-forms...

A feature of the tales will be Hendrick's restlessness, his inability to settle. Each setting will be exotically different to the last, but the series will be connected through identification with Matt and his quest for a home...